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Topic: Charity & Sacrifice (Read 2451 times)

“Warren Buffet and Bill Gates contribute billions to charity” screamed the headlines in leading newspapers. The rationale for their magnanimous gesture - any surplus wealth left after taking care of all our requirements, and that of our children, are much more useful if donated in charity. Now, both of them are on a crusade to persuade other wealthy people to do likewise.

When I read the news of this extraordinary generosity of the two richest men in the world today, I was reminded of a story which features in our Puranas. Once, a very wealthy & powerful King had organized a huge Yagna or sacrifice. The practice of those days was that the King, upon the conclusion of the rituals, would give away large sums of wealth, grains, cattle, clothes etc. as charity to the needy people who would throng such occasions.

The king felt blissful and blessed after he had given away significant part of the wealth that he had accumulated through conquests, taxes etc. Suddenly, a hare appeared and started rolling on the grounds in front of the king. He noticed that one side of the hare was golden and the other side was normal. Intrigued, he asked the hare as to what it was up to.

The hare replied that it was in search of a worthy sacrifice to ensure that its body became fully golden. It said that half of its body became golden when it rolled in the floor of a peasant whose sacrifice was extraordinary. The King wanted to know more about this. So, he asked the hare to tell him the story of the peasant and his sacrifice.

The hare informed the king that there was a family of peasants who were very kind and charitable. They would often starve due to poverty and, on the days they could afford, would eat their meal only after feeding more needy people.One day, as they were about to eat, after starving for 3 days, they had a visitor who was hungry. They gladly invited him for sharing their meal. After he had been fed, as the family sat down to eat, another visitor came who was also very hungry. By the time they fed him, all the food in the house was over. They only had water left to drink. Just before they could have it, another visitor came with dogs and said that the dogs were thirsty. So, they even gave up the water for the dogs.

They gave up their lives in this manner and attained the highest goal. The family was blessed because they did not distinguish between themselves and others. Their sacrifice was indeed greater than any charity that people do after taking care of their needs. The hare rolled on their floor and became half golden. Since then, he was searching for a similar level of sacrifice so that he could become fully golden. The King, after hearing the story, realized that his effort, although praiseworthy, paled in comparison to the sacrifice of the peasant family.

Charity is when you feel for others. Sacrifice is when you treat others as yourself.

amiatall

I have heard in some speeches that Bill Gates speaks often about overpopulation and the need to reduce population etc. Is this charity ?Well never mind. Here is the story of one of the Rockfellers who died at 97. When he was young he had great gift for finances and predictions and intuition. He said that he will live long and be very rich. And it happened, he started to accumulate wealth to strive for more and more. By the time he was 50 or so, suddenly he started to feel bad, he started to lose hairs etc. The doctor said "you must give up your pursuits for more money and give your business to someone else and be calm otherwise you will die soon". And soon, one day, he met tibetian monk who said "now, you must give abundantly, share your wealth". And he did so. As time passed he started to feel better and better, everything just started to feel alive again. So he said to monk "now everyone will appreciate me" but monk replayed "no, you will appreciate that you are giving and you will thank life that you met me". Since that time several charity organizations were established. This story circulated among rich ones.

What does this story tell?Firstly, if you are meant to be reach, you are meant to share it with poor. If you are meant to be strong, you help weak. This is how universe works. Harmoniously.Secondly, giving your goods to others may lead to a bigger egotistical view like "they will appreciate me now" etc. Thirdly, there are the laws of universe which takes place despite what kind of persons there are.

So Bill and Warren may have learned some laws of the universe, but did they learn beyond it? Do they really sacrifice, or are they just acting because of fear of illness and death? We really don't know.There are many possibilities.

I do not know about Rockfeller. But we all know that Bill Gates started from scratch. His factory was started in a car-shed. Sohe knows what poverty is. when he grew up, since his mother had died, he selected a personal assistant, who was old and he looked upon her as mother for useful advices. He did not select any beautiful blonde as his secretary. So there must be some genuineness in what Bill Gates does. His philanthropic activities have started even some years back, in Africa and India and Kampuchea [Cambodia]. He is a benevolent capitalist like Narayana Murthy, the Mentor of Infosys, India.

Gates is undoubtedly a great karma-yogi and he is now concentrating on some charity work like melinda-gates foundation etc.

But he has his own drawbacks.

Few Criticisms

a) Gates is one of the best-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is admired by many, a number of industry insiders criticize his business tactics, which they consider anti-competitive, an opinion which has in some cases been upheld by the courts

b) He just cannot digest if he hears some company is dominating him. More details can be found from "Inside Google" Book.There is a whole chapter dedicated to Mr gates and his tactics.

c) Former Sun Microsystems chief executive Scott McNealy occasionally remarked that Microsoft never produced technology except by buying it: "R&D [research and development] and M&A [mergers and acquisitions] are the same thing over there."

d) Historically, Microsoft has also been accused of overworking employees, in many cases, leading to burnout within just a few years of joining the company. The company is often referred to as a "Velvet Sweatshop", a term which originated in a Seattle Times article in 1989, and later became used to describe the company by some of Microsoft's own employees. The focus of the idea is that Microsoft provides nearly everything for its employees in a convenient place, but in turn overworks them to a point where it would be bad for their (possibly long-term) health. For example, the kitchenettes have free beverages and many buildings include exercise rooms and showers. However, the accusation is that they try to keep employees at the company for unreasonably long hours and working too much. This is detailed in several books about Microsoft, including "Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire."

e) Microsoft A History of Anticompetitive Behavior and Consumer Harmhttp://www.ecis.eu/documents/Finalversion_Consumerchoicepaper.pdf

Making employees to sweat and over work is there in all EasternWorld nations, excepting India, where the employees are highly unionized and also do not give proper inputs. Otherwise in Japan,Hongkong, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and other countries, employees are made to overwork.

As regards competition, it should be there in all companies. Competition makes one company's quality to improve and pricesto become cheaper. In India all public sector undertakings havebecome useless since it is whole monopoly. HMT and a few companies had to close down when globalization came and some industries were made compete with private sector. These companies Public sector companies could not compete and also ensure good products and prices. Take for example Mysore Sandal Soap. It is one of the best soaps in India, but poor management and poor marketing have made its products sell less and less. When they brought out one detergent powder called POINT, it could not sell due to poor marketing. Nirma had a better quality than Surf but some vested interests made Nirma suffer in market. So also AMUL chocolates vis a vis Cadbury. AMUL is Gujarat company, a milk union started by Kurien, a great manager. It was diversified to make chocolates and vested interests spoiled its market. In America even though vested interests in some other manner are there, they always appreciate good quality and competitive prices.The Government does not play dirty tricks as in India.

Jealousy is a very vague term. In a class, the boy scoring 2nd rankis jealous about the first rank holder. So he works more efficientlyto attain first rank. But it does not mean that this boy should stealthe books of the first rank holder. This is were simple jealousy differs from treachery. Jealousy between two corporate firms brings about healthy competition. But there is something called corporate espionage. The losing company tries to steal the methods of the winning company and tries to follow suit. The losing company sometimes encourages the employees of winning company to go on strike and thus affect their production and quality. This is what that should be avoided. But in India, the second variety is also there very much.

There was one toothbrush called ARYAN toothbrush which was encouraged by public. The Colgate Palmolive created a long strike in the Aryan factory [which was a medium Swadeshi industry and not a multinational like Colgate Palmolive] with the result, they had to close down the shop and Aryan went out of market. This is corporate espionage and this should be prevented through laws and rules of the land.

well said subramanian garu and this is more or less problem with Mr gates who sometimes follows "second variety" as described by you atleast according to media reports sir.

he deliberity supressed competition by swallowing(merging) their companies in his company many times in the past and follows un-ethical business practices especially towards google and their software atleast according to media reports sir.

Anyways we donot gain anything criticizing or finding faults with others so let us leave his karma to god